The One-Minute Thought Experiment to Calm Your Coronavirus Anxiety

Here is something you can do about your Coronavirus anxiety – immediately.

If you give me five minutes of your time, I will give you an anxiety-calming tool that takes less than 60 seconds to implement. It costs nothing, and you can do this anywhere. You could even get away with this in the middle of a stressful meeting about COVID-19, and nobody will notice. It is not meditation, EFT or deep breathing.

Here is an audio version of this article if you prefer to listen instead of read:

Before I explain exactly what this thought experiment is, let’s imagine anxiety as a merry-go-round (or should I say unmerry-go-round).

Anxiety looks at a problem and circles it. Not only does it fail to respond to that problem, but it starts disabling your higher creative thinking, which is so vital when it comes to the complex problems of the world in 2020.

Anxiety also makes you susceptible to the profit-driven hysteria of the press. Cue more anxiety.

You never get anywhere with anxiety as your tool to deal with Coronavirus. All it does is let you fool yourself that your state of hypervigilance is justified.

Of course we need to be vigilant with the present COVID-19 situation. What I am saying is that hypervigilance, which means fretting beyond what is useful, increases our stress levels to the point where we cannot respond effectively. This is when stress can start to put an extra unneccsary load on our immune system, which is something that everyone needs to be functioning as effectively as possible right now.
The reason that so many people are prone to anxiety comes down to a failure to undesrtand and manage their Cavebrain, or the ancient, primitive part of our mind that was designed for our ancestors. We will automatically switch to Cavebrain mode when we sense a threat: fight, flight or freeze are the department of Cavebrain.
Here’s the thing: Cavebrain was designed to deal with direct, immediate threats. Sabre-toothed tigers. Neighbouring tribes. Extreme weather events.

Coronavirus is, for most people, an indirect threat.

We are lucky that we are living in a world where we can put measures into place to reduce our chances of contracting Coronavirus. Our cavedwelling ancestors would have been exposed to it as a tribe.

The Antidote To Anxiety

The antidote to anxiety is acceptance. In this case, to accept the uncertainty of this situation.

Coronavirus is here; you may as well accept it.

(By the way, Look at all the toilet rolls I have stockpiled is NOT acceptance - that would be anxiety).

When we accept the reality of the situation - instead of trying to use the necessary precautions as ways to immunise ourselves against it - we lower our stress levels and give ourselves the greatest possible chances of dealing with it.

To do anything else is like trying to buy a plane ticket to New York without first deciding where you are departing form. Acceptance is the pre-requisite for dealing effectively with any problem.

It says: Calm down, anxiety. Coronavirus is what it is. Now what do we do about it?

The 30-second trick to deal with anxiety is as follows.

Take a deep breath in for 7, hold for 3, and exhale for 8. Breathe in through your belly, not your chest. You can do this without anyone noticing.

Say out loud (or in your head) the following three sentences three times:

I accept this situation is happening
This too shall pass
and I decide my reaction to Coronavirus

Now repeat the breathing pattern described above.

The key with this whole exercise is not to try to convince yourself to chill out and permanently kill any anxiety.

The key is in the fact that you are choosing to take on three new beliefs for only 30 seconds.

Anxiety tries to convince you it is vital for your survival, as if the threat you are facing is a tiger that is lurking around the next corner or prowling round your garden.

Telling your anxiety that you can revert to the well-worn groove of hypervigilance in a minute allows you to pivot and experiment with a new way of showing up in the rapidly changing, uncertain and disruptive situation called Coronavirus.

This 30-second experiment allows you to start managing your Cavebrain, instead of being ruled by it.

Try it and email me info (at) theshiftinside.com

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